Craving a plant-based meal that doesn’t compromise on flavor? Vegan chef and restauranteur Tara Punzone has a tip: Toss a pile of vegetables in a pot to make vegan giambotta.
In her cookbook, Vegana Italiana, Punzone explains that giambotta doesn’t require any sort of finicky adjustments to ensure that it’s meat-free: “It’s funny how so much of what my family ate when I was a child was actually already vegan, such as pasta e fagioli and this recipe for giambotta, a summery vegetable stew that comes from my grandmother’s hometown of Calabria.”
While the soup is technically associated with warmer months, you can find most of the required veggies year-round. And if you can’t locate that zucchini, Puzone encourages you to fiddle with whatever is readily available: “The purpose of this recipe is to use whatever vegetables are in season, or to use extra vegetables you have on hand, so feel free to play with the vegetable list and customize this to your liking!”
Giambotta Recipe
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 cups diced yellow onion
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 2 tablespoons very thinly sliced garlic
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves
- ¼ teaspoon red chili flakes
- 2 cups medium-diced Yukon gold potatoes
- 1 cup peeled and diced eggplant
- 1 cup diced red bell peppers
- 28-ounce can whole peeled D.O.P. tomatoes, mashed
- 2 bay leaves
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, stems included
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned and drained are okay)
- 1 cup diced zucchini
- 1½ teaspoons sea salt
- 1½ teaspoons black pepper
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Sauté the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, thyme, tarragon, and red chili flakes for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onion is translucent.
- Add the diced potatoes and sauté for approximately 5 minutes.
- Add the eggplant and red bell peppers and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, and parsley and cook at a low boil for 12 to 15 minutes.
- Add the cooked chickpeas, zucchini, salt, and pepper and continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes. The vegetables should be firm, not mushy.
- Remove from the heat. Remove the bay leaves and add the basil.
Excerpted from VEGANA ITALIANA by Tara Punzone. Copyright © 2025 by Tara Punzone. Used by permission of Rodale Books, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
